“Heart?” Nadya wrinkled her nose. “The inside bits are for the wolves.”
Dax looked equally unimpressed. “It smells like disease.”
“The deer looks perfectly healthy,” I argued.
And I had more faith in the trolls’ senses than a human’s. Wolves always knew which prey to avoid.
“I’m just going to trust you on that,” Dax said.
“You two are such princesses.” I scoffed. Dax had spent too much time in ballrooms to appreciate the more rustic parts, but Nadya had been raised tougher. I expected her to wolf down the piece faster than me. “The heart’s reserved for the best hunters in the party.”
“You’re The Huntress, you do the honors,” Dax muttered.
“Don’t mind if I do. And get those disgusted looks off your faces. They might not understand what we’re saying, but they can see. You’ll offend them.”
I reached out for the piece of heart with a long, pointed gruff, a closed-lip smile, and a head tilt. I didn’t know if this gesture carried the same significance for them–or if they too considered the organs to be nothing more than good fertilizer and this was all an elaborate joke.
But I quieted those ugly whispers.
The trolls had been more respectful toward me than some allies. They’d recognized me as a leader instantly. I hadn’t had to fight for their regard–or maybe I had without realizing it.
Their leader look took a piece of the heart as well, proving my fears senseless. They gulped it down in one bite, while I chewed and chewed and chewed.
The bloody, metallic twinge had never been my favorite, but it brought back memories of happier, calmer days.
The small thank you whispered to the forest for filling our bellies and the muttered prayer for the deer that would feedentire families for a week, a ritual Grandpa Constantine had always insisted on and I’d carried further.
That first moment when he’d cut his own piece of heart in two small parts and handed me one, long before I could even hold a bow upright. Like he could foresee greatness and had the unshakable confidence that I’d rise to it.
That certainty had been both a blessing and a curse.
It had set me on the right path, but had left me with the lingering doubt that I never raced fast enough to reach the end. If there ever was one.
Years later and so many hunts past me, each bite brought me back to that moment. When everything felt possible and endless, like nothing could stop me.
What’s stopping you now?
“You alright?” Dax asked, yanking me from the warm forests of my youth and into the cold of Solkar’s Reach. “Is the heart poisoned?”
My eyes popped enough to narrow at him. I hadn’t even noticed I’d closed them. “I was having a moment.”
He shook his head and looked out into the distance. “Maybe I was wrong. This wilderness seems to suit you.”
No.
The wilderness had always been inside of me.
I gulped the last of the heart and groaned again at the troll, who gave me a satisfied gruff back. One leader to another.
The moment was shattered by hurried steps thundering toward us.
“Huntress.” Vylkor rushed toward the kennels, giving the trolls a wide berth. “The Northern leaders are ready to parlay.”
Chapter 55
Allie
The Northern leaders might’ve been ready, but I was still caught somewhere between surprise and apprehension.
